Sabal programme which was started in 2016 as a response to address the chronic hunger and malnutrition prevailing among the Korku tribal community in 141 villages of Khalwa block of Madhya Pradesh and Melghat region of Maharashtra has completed its five years in December 2021. A two-day impact review cum strategic preparations meeting was organized to celebrate the success of the 5 years of programme implementation.

Dr. Saju MK set the context by presenting the two-fold objective which will be an impact review of all the partner accomplishments under the Sabal programme and followed with developing strategies to sustain the programme results through community-led initiatives with a bridge programme. Appreciating the contributions of partners, Dr. Saju happily expressed that through these 5 years of intensive work we have been able to successfully reduce malnutrition by 36.8% in the underweight malnutrition category.

Fr. (Dr) Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India in his inaugural address expressed his vision to create each Korku family BMP Parivar (Banana Moringa Papaya family) which can help to address the nutrition needs of their family members. Emphasizing the sustainability of the programme results he shared to follow the principle of 5Cs;

Celebrate – Community has the right to celebrate their own achievements,

Critic – Positively criticize and introspect on what did go well and what didn’t. Failures are the stepping stone towards success,

Consolidate – Consolidating our experiences, practices, learnings, successes, and achievements,

Conserve – Conserving the community’s culture, tradition, wisdom, knowledge, practices, and identity, and

Continue – Ensuring the continuity of the behaviour change practices by the community.

Fr. (Dr) Jolly, Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India appreciated the change and achievement brought through the Sabal programme. Reflecting 25 years back on how he had been able to address malnutrition through a small initiative in Melghat region he expressed that Sabal has brought a multi-fold impact through this 5 years programme. He shared that we need to continue work for the emancipation of these poor tribal communities creating models of malnutrition free villages. In the season of advent, he shared that we need to see in every child the face of Jesus, give them new life and allow them to grow in the love of God.

Appreciating the intensive work done with the Korku community, Fr. Kiran Olakkengil – Forum Director MPSSS through his message expressed that we also need to emphasize the recording and documentation of these grassroots achievements transforming them as knowledge documents so that more and more people witness our efforts.

Ms. Navita, Asst. DPO Khandwa also marked her presence as a special guest. She expressed that the Sabal programme has brought behaviour change among the Korku community. The support of the programme in strengthening and functionalizing the grassroots institutional system was beyond expectation. She shared that the government systems have their own limitations and NGOs like Caritas India, and its partners can support the Government to fill those gaps and reach out the services to the community effectively.

Mr. Peter Seidel, Project In-charge Caritas Germany joined the meeting through a virtual platform and shared his appreciations for the change brought through the Sabal programme. He also said we need to work towards strengthening the community to become self-reliant so that they do not have to seek external support and are collectively able to work for addressing their needs and demands through Government programmes. He appreciated all the micro-level initiatives and emphasized escalating the programme initiatives towards the meso and macro level and strengthening the network with various line departments.

Thereafter, Mr. Mukund – Asst. Programme Manager facilitated the partners presentations. All the partner coordinators presented their 5 years programme achievement followed by the organizational directors presenting their perspectives of programme.

The first day of the programme was concluded with a gallery walk through the exhibition set up by the Sabal team demonstrating water-shed models, integrating farming models, local delicacies and traditional Korku dresses and other tools and instruments and Sabal knowledge documents.

Last day of the two-day programme was more about developing strategies for sustaining the Sabal programme results and finalizing the programme proposal for the bridge programme. The programme was participated by Caritas India management, Rev. Fr. (Dr) Paul – Executive Director, Rev. Fr. (Dr) Jolly – Asst. Executive Director, Rev. Fr. Kiran Olakkengil – Forum Director MPSSS, Dr. Saju MK – Zonal Manager (West), CI Sabal Management team, partner directors and Sabal staff.